[mythtv-users] Hauppauge cards...

[Preston Crow]

On Fri, 2004-10-15 at 10:35, Chris Zinkula wrote:
> WinTV-PVR 250:
> Has a single coaxial input which I would use for video recording. 
> Also has a s-video and composite video input which I would not use. 
> This also comes with a remote (which would work with MythTV installing
> the appropriate drivers and such).  However there is no video out but
> I could use my current vid card that has s-video out to send video to
> the TV (Raedon 9600 SE, 128 MB ram).  Has hardware encoding to MPEG-2.
> 
> WinTV-PVR 350:
> Pretty much the same as above but instead of having s-video and
> composite inputs there is an s-video/composite/audio out (via a
> cable).  Also this card has hardware decoding (only MPEG-2).

I believe that there are several other cards that are essentially
identical to the 250 but at a lower cost.  There are also different
chipsets occasionally showing up in all of these cards that isn't
supported by the driver yet, but those are apparently rare (but stay
away from the new PVR-150 and PVR-500 for now).

> I think these two cards are my best options.  Although if there is
> some other card that I should get please send the recommendation.  I
> would anticipate that I will most likely compress most of my video to
> some other format than MPEG-2 (although I don't know until I get
> there).  Therefore I'm not sure the hardware decoding would do much
> good.

Your research and descriptions sound good.

If you're planning on using this system with an HDTV, then the video-out
on the 350 is useless, as it can't do better than NTSC/PAL, so you'll
probably be using a Nvidia card with TV out.

Other than that, everything I've heard suggests that the PVR-350 is the
best option for watching recorded TV.  It's not good for games (no
acceleration), so if MythGame will be more limited.

I haven't seen much discussion of using the 350 for output with
transcoded files, but I assume it can handle that just fine.

Personally, I find that I do manual transcoding of things that have been
sitting around for a while, and when I do it, I take the time to set up
a cut list to chop out the commercials and any recording before or after
the show.  So about half my watching is non-transcoded.  I use a Nvidia
card for TV out, and I'm happy with it, but I have seen some interlacing
issues once in a while that the 350 would solve.  But I like games, and
I'm getting an HDTV, so I'm happy with my decision.

--PC